Followers

January 26, 2009

The Future of Cities

TECHNOLOGY - In 2007 the UN announced in a habitat report that for the first time in human history, more than 50% of people in the world live in urban areas, and that number is still increasing.

In Canada the urbanization of the population is closer to 78%, and the majority of the population of Canada lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Today cities all over the world are the driving force behind science, technology, and the economy, and are the heart of politics, society, and culture. Despite the unavoidable importance of cities, they are still on the back burner of political will and attention. As a result Canadian cities have suffered massive inadequacies in funding, self-determination and infrastructure whereas in the rest of the world countries have focused on and nutured their cities.

Hopefully this will change.

Today a group of concerned Torontonians are meeting at the University of Toronto to discuss raising public awareness of the importance of cities, public transportation such as subways and building smarter cities for the future.

The meeting will also be attended by the former mayor's of London England, the current mayor of Cambridge Massachusetts, Toronto's current mayor David Miller and past Toronto mayor David Crombie.